new-age kids
by inactive-94305943
Summary: Miscellaneous SaboAce oneshots, drabbles etc!
1. peace

Sabo wakes slowly, leisurely. It's warm. He knows that Ace is there without even having to open his eyes but he does anyway, just so he can see him. Ace looks peaceful when he's sleeping, face slack, and even as Sabo watches he shifts slightly, pressing his face into the crook of Sabo's neck. Sabo knows that he must look like an idiot right now - he can feel the fondness written all over his face. But he doesn't care.

It's raining outside. Sabo's nose is cold but his body is warm. They put the second quilt on last week and it's warm in their bed, even as autumn is slipping away and the first traces of winter are appearing everywhere. Ace's legs are curled around Sabo's and it takes a minute for him to properly untangle himself without waking his fiance up. It's early, and greyish sunlight drips through the curtains and onto the bed. Sabo has nowhere in particular to be, nothing pressing on his mind. He likes mornings like this the most.

His toes curl as his feet hit the cold floor. Sabo stands and pulls on a sweatshirt - one of Ace's. It's a little too big but it smells like him and Sabo likes it. He pulls his bedhead back into a low ponytail, brushes the loose strands from his face. Shoots one last glance at Ace and smiles, content, feeling warmth swell in his chest.

In the hallway it's cool, but not so cold that Sabo wants to go back to bed. He pads into the kitchen and brews a pot of coffee, black, just the way both he and Ace like it. Outside, the sun is coming up over the forest. Sabo pours himself half of the coffee, leaving some for Ace. The mug has 'espresso patronum' on it in fancy text. Ace's birthday present for him last year, when money was tight. Sabo loves it.

Out on the deck, it's cold and fresh. Their house is out in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the forest, and the colours of autumn stretch all around. The orange and red leaves are lined with frost that glitters in the morning sunlight. Sabo sits in the big, wooden chair, curling up, wrapping his cold fingers around Ace's mug. The coffee pours steam out into the cold air and he watches it as it curls in front of his face, disappearing on the breeze. It's quiet out here. Peaceful. If somebody had told Sabo last year that he would be here now, he wouldn't have believed them; he would have called them crazy.

The sliding door opens behind him. Sabo shifts up slightly and Ace squeezes in beside him. He's grabbed their blanket and wraps it around both of their shoulders, pressing up against Sabo, holding his own mug of coffee. Sabo smiles at him, resting his head on his shoulder. Ace wraps his free arm around him. They watch the sun come up together.


	2. you care so much, he doesn't even know

Ace places the same order as he always does - black coffee and a chicken and bacon sandwich, toasted. Sabo's the only one behind the counter today. And no wonder; business is slow. Ace is the only one who's come through the door to order something since he got here, and there's only one other customer here, sitting in front of the window and reading a paper.

Ace watches as Sabo drops the same coffee cup twice before realising that it's the wrong size. Then he gets the right one but overfills it, and then accidentally grabs an apron left on the side to wipe it up instead of a cloth. Sabo realises his mistake and curses, going to grab a proper cloth but knocking the overly filled cup over as he goes. The hot coffee sloshes onto the floor and over his arm and he curses loudly, dropping the apron to clutch the area where he must have burned himself. " _Fuck_!"

"You okay?" Ace stands up without meaning to. "One sec, I'll grab some towels from the bathroom."

Sabo's swearing obviously carried. The man sitting in the window seat scowls, standing up to leave without throwing away the empty coffee cup on his table. Sabo looks devastated, work clothes soaked with coffee, standing in a puddle of the stuff. The door closes behind the customer, leaving just Ace and Sabo, and Ace opens the stile and slips behind the counter, arms filled with paper towels. He puts them on the sideboard as he approaches.

"Let me see your arm for a minute. It wasn't too hot, was it?"

Sabo blinks, still staring after the man. "I…"

"Sabo? Sabo, look at me."

Sabo's eyes flit up to meet Ace's. They're bloodshot, ringed with darkness like bruising. "Yeah…?"

"It's fine. All of this is fine. You…" Ace trails off.

Sabo looks utterly wrecked. Maybe he got another call from his parents. Maybe he's bogged down and stressed with school work. Maybe it's both. Either way, it looks like he's at the end of his tether and he hasn't slept in at least three days and concern washes up inside of Ace. He can't carry on working in a state like this. Ace isn't going to let him.

"Come on - sit down." Sabo doesn't protest as Ace leads him to a chair away from the counter, pushing him into it. Ace strides to the door and turns the latch up, flipping over the sign so it reads, 'CLOSED', and then moves back to Sabo, sitting across from him. "Show me your arm."

Sabo obeys, looking slightly dazed. "I'm sorry. I-"

"Don't be sorry - fuck. That coffee must have been hot. One sec."

Ace stands up, moves to rummage back behind the counter and finds out where the ice for the frappes is. He wraps a handful in a dishcloth and brings it back, pressing it against the burnt area. Sabo winces but doesn't push him away. The coffee on his shirt is drying a dull, greyish-brown colour.

"You've got to stop doing this to yourself," Ace murmurs after a few seconds. "What happened?"

"My… my dad called again. Last night. Told me that he's disappointed and I should be ashamed and I'm useless and everything, same as always, but…" Sabo's shoulders curl in on themselves. He doesn't meet Ace's eyes. "I guess… it got to me, this time. I was tired. Argued with Koala, and I was stressed, and...it got to me," he says again, helplessly. "I didn't sleep."

"When was the last time you slept? Or ate something, for that matter?"

Sabo shrugs evasively. "I don't know. I have to open up again-"

"No, you don't. No way in hell am I letting you work like this. I'm going to clean up and make sure that you're really going to be okay and then you're coming back to my place with me to sleep for a week. Got it?"

"But-"

"No buts."

"But the cafe-"

"Sabo." Sabo stops, looking at Ace. Ace takes a deep breath. "Stop. You can't keep living like this. You can't keep doing this and expecting me to be fine with it. If you can't take care of yourself, I'm going to do it. And you can't stop me."

Sabo looks away, at the table between them. The makeshift ice pack slips off his arm and to the floor. For a moment, Ace thinks he's going to hit him. Then, slowly, Sabo shakes his head. "I can't do this."

"Sabo?" Ace slouches, trying to see his face. "Sabo? Are you okay?"

Sabo shakes his head again. His voice is choked up. "I can't do this. I can't-"

He slumps, elbows on the table, putting his head in his hands. His shoulders are jerking, heaving with sobs, and he can't seem to get words out around the force of his own grief. Ace brings his chair around the table and puts his arms around him, chin on top of his head, taking the brunt of his weight so Sabo himself doesn't have to hold himself up. Sabo turns towards his chest and cries, openly, whole body wracked with sobs as though he can't hold them back. Ace squeezes his eyes shut and bears it, ignoring the pain hitting him with every broken little noise that Sabo makes, just trying to comfort the distraught student.

"I- I just-"

"I know, I know, I promise it's gonna be fine." Ace holds him closer. "It's all gonna be okay. I promise."

Sabo wipes at his own eyes before dissolving into panicked, gasping sobs again. "Ace, what am I going to _do_?!"

"I don't know, but… but I'm going to be here for you. Through it all. Just _let me in_."

Sabo doesn't answer - he doesn't seem able to - and Ace just clutches him tighter, feeling wetness on the front of his sweatshirt. He hates himself for not predicting this. Sabo has been going through so, so much. At some point, he was going to crack. Ace just wishes he could have been there on the nights when Sabo obviously didn't sleep, could have held his hand when his father was on the phone - or, better still, told the bastard to fuck off. He feels so helpless because until Sabo lets himself rely on him, Ace has to sit back and watch him crumble.

Hands trembling, Sabo reaches up and slips his arms shakily around Ace's neck, face pressed into the hollow between neck and shoulder, and breaks down.


	3. christmas

There's a knock on the door.

Marco is the only one who hears it over the christmas music blaring from the speakers beside the TV. Ace and Thatch are dancing to 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' in front of the fire, falling over one another and laughing so hard that they can barely keep in time, socked feet slipping on the carpet. Rouge is sitting in a corner, chuckling at them and smiling with Oyaji. It's warm and bright and cheerful - the perfect Christmas Eve.

Somebody knocks again.

With a sigh, Marco stands and calls to the room at large, "There's somebody at the door, yoi. I'll get it."

Oyaji nods, red in the face and beaming with the festivity of it all, and Marco slips into the hallway and towards the door. The porch light is on. It's snowing outside, and well into the minus figures when it comes to temperature. Marco can't help but think that whoever's out there tonight must be brave.

They knock again, hurriedly, and Marco calls, "Alright, alright! One sec!"

He grabs the key off a hook beside the door, now a little annoyed, and unlocks the door. The second he opens it, he's hit with an intense rush of cold. Snow and dead leaves skitter over the doormat. He looks up and at first, he doesn't know who he's looking at. Whoever it is is shorter than Marco, only slightly taller than Ace's height, and has their arms crossed over their chest tightly. Their _bare_ arms.

Immediately, Marco's irritation melts away. "Can I… help you?"

The kid (because yes, _fuck_ , that's a kid) looks up. His blonde hair is coated with snow, as well as his shoulders. Marco can barely see his t-shirt through a coating of the stuff. He's visibly shivering, hunched over, and now that Marco can see him better he doesn't even wait for him to answer before ushering him inside the door and slamming it behind him. The kid's teeth are chattering. Startled, he looks up at Marco.

"Are you alright, yoi?"

The blonde kid starts to nod and then seems to decide against it. Marco looks him up and down. He's wearing jeans and trainers and a t-shirt, and that seems to be just about it; no coat or scarf to mention. He must be freezing. There's snow all over him and he's shaking. _Who the hell would leave some kid out, dressed like this, in this kind of weather?_

"Should I get you a phone?" Marco asks, at a loss for what else to say. "Or something warmer to wear? We've got towels - I can-"

"Is Ace here?"

They're the first words the kid's said and they're spoken through chattering teeth. He keeps trying to glance past Marco, to the living room, where carefree laughter and music echo out into the hall. Marco raises an eyebrow. Maybe this is one of Ace's friends from school? But if he is, why would he be out alone, in the cold, on Christmas Eve?

"He is, yoi," Marco says eventually. "But before I get him, can you tell me why you're here? What happened? Do you need me to call somebody?"

The kid glances past Marco one last time just as Ace laughs loudly. The sound is distinctive and something inside of the blonde seems to snap. One minute he's standing there, still hugging himself, and the next he's darted past Marco and up the corridor. Marco yelps and spins around but he's too late; the kid is already through the door and into the living room, and all laugher and conversation has halted abruptly.

Marco runs in after him, freezing at the scene playing out in the room. Ace has stopped dancing and he's staring at the kid, open-mouthed. He looks about as grim as a sixteen-year old can look. The kid himself is staring back at him and to them, it's almost as though the rest of the world has disappeared. The jaunty christmas music abruptly turns off as Thatch hits standby on the speakers, and the room is plunged into silence.

The blonde says, after a moment, "I told them. Ace, I told them."

"Sabo, you-" Ace swallows. "They didn't take it well?"

Sabo takes a deep breath and then shakes his head, blinking furiously. "I guess not."

"How far did you walk to get here?!" Ace looks him up and down, approaching, putting a hand on his arm. There's a kind of physical closeness between them that tells of a long-term friendship. Or something more. "Shit, you're freezing."

Oyaji stands up but the movement is too abrupt and Sabo shifts closer to Ace, grabbing his arm, a tiny noise of fear escaping his throat. Whitebeard freezes, and Ace puts an arm around Sabo and shoots his father a meaningful look, as if to say, ' _don't come any closer'_. Then, to Sabo, he says, "It's okay… but, they kicked you out? Just like that?"

"Yeah." Sabo's teeth are still chattering. "I'm sorry to barge in, I just… didn't have anywhere else to go."

"Don't be sorry. You don't have to be sorry," Ace assures him. "Sabo, you did it. You told them"

"And look how well that went." Sabo turns slightly closer to Ace and Ace hugs him, hard. Marco and the others can do nothing but watch. "I should never have told them," he says, muffled into Ace's shoulder.

"But you did. That's all that matters. And you got me - it doesn't matter if they don't let you go back. You got me."

"Can I...ask what happened?" Rouge asks, gently. She's smaller than Oyaji, less domineering, and Sabo lets her get closer. She crouches in front of him and asks, "You're Sabo?"

"Yeah… I'm friends with him from school," Sabo explains. "Good friends."

"Did your parents throw you out?" Thatch asks.

Sabo nods. "There's been something I've been meaning to tell them for a long time. I guess they didn't like it."

"You can stay with us for as long as you need, son," Oyaji says. "Whether they accept you back or not."

Sabo looks up at him and then nods, eyes wet, turning back to Ace to hide his face. Rouge looks very sad. There's a sombre atmosphere in the room now.

But there are bigger issues than a damper on the festivities. Sabo's forearms are patchy blue and his lips are pale, and the melted snow in his hair is dripping onto his shoulders. He looks freezing. Marco is about to say something about it but Ace beats him to it. "You guys get back to it. I'll get Sabo some dry clothes. We… might not be back downstairs. I don't know. Just… carry on without us, okay?"

"Alright…" Rouge looks hesitant, but she nods all the same. "Call me if you need anything, alright? I'll check on you two in a while."

Ace nods, arm still wrapped around Sabo, and the two teens leave the room together. As he goes, Sabo calls over his shoulder, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You don't need to thank them." Ace's voice is audible in the hall as they make their way towards the stairs. Then, "Shit, don't cry, please don't cry-"

Rouge goes to stand up but Oyaji puts a hand on her arm. "Rouge. Ace is capable. They'll be alright." She nods reluctantly and sits down.

Thatch doesn't bother turning the music back on; he and Marco sit on the couch, side by side, and Marco wipes his hands on his trousers. They're wet from where he touched Sabo's back as he brought him in. Nobody speaks for a moment. Upstairs, footsteps move around Ace's room and the bed creaks.

"A bit of a downer on Christmas Eve," Thatch says, to the room at large. "Families can suck. Did you see how cold that kid looked?"

Rouge nods. "At least we know that Sabo will be spending christmas with us now, instead of his family. They sound… unpleasant."

"To say the least," Oyaji agrees. "He and Ace seem close."

"Very," Marco agrees simply.

He can tell, instinctively, that this Christmas (and indeed the coming year) is going to be an interesting one. Especially now that both apparently include Sabo.


End file.
